Marlies beat Admirals to sweep series in three games

TORONTO - Greg McKegg scored the winner and Drew MacIntyre made 29 saves as the Toronto Marlies shut out the Milwaukee Admirals 2-0 in American Hockey League action Thursday night.

With the win, the Marlies complete a three-game series sweep of the Admirals and move on to the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs.

T.J. Brennan added an empty netter with less than 25 seconds remaining for his second of the playoffs.

Admirals starter Marek Mazanec made 21 saves in the loss.

Toronto, which lost both regular season meetings with Milwaukee by an 8-3 margin, never trailed in the series while outscoring the Admirals 13-4.

Playing in his first game since March 30, Marlies defenceman Andrew MacWilliam made his presence felt in the second period catching Admirals forward Calle Jarnkrok with a huge open-ice hit at the Toronto blue-line.

Moments later, Milwaukee forward Francis Wathier was assessed a boarding penalty for his hit from behind on Brennan.

On the ensuing power play, McKegg opened the scoring on a cross-ice feed from Jerry D'Amigo for his first of the playoffs at 17:31.

With his assist, D'Amigo now has two goals and five assists and is the league leader in playoff points with seven.

Less than a minute later, Kenny Ryan had excellent chance to give Toronto a 2-0 lead, on a breakaway, but held on too long before shooting and Mazanec managed to get his left pad on it.

The Marlies played a tentative first period, their first game since Sunday, and were outshot 11-8 by the Admirals.

Toronto will now await results from both the Chicago-Rochester first-round matchup and the Grand Rapids-Abbotsford series to determine their next opponent.

The second round of the Calder Cup playoffs isn't expected to start until next weekend.

Notes: Toronto forward Carter Ashton (knee) and defenceman Andrew MacWilliam (concussion) made their series debuts. Spencer Abbott (shoulder) and Peter Holland (lower body) have yet to play in the playoffs. ... Marlies alumnus Ron Ellis dropped the puck in a ceremonial faceoff pre-game.